Ask Leo: Get rid of questionable Hotmail auto-completes?

When I create a new message and start typing in the To line, Hotmail suggests some email addresses that I know, but several that I don’t know and – to be honest – are very embarrassing as they’re often adult in nature – sometimes VERY much so. It kind of implies that I’ve contacted these people before, but there’s no way!

Why are they showing, where did they come from, and most importantly, how do I get rid of them?

I’ve heard this one a lot in recent months and I was never able to figure out what was going on.

All of the credit for this goes to Elizabeth, one of my readers, who first asked the question; when I didn’t know the answer, she came back to me a few days later with the explanation.

We now know where they came from, and even better, how to get rid of them and make sure that they don’t come back.

Auto-complete

Auto-complete is pretty straightforward. When you type an email address or name into an address field as you compose a message, Hotmail automatically displays a list of addresses that are supposedly either in your address book or from people whom you’ve corresponded with before.